Hermann Reinheimer

Hermann Reinheimer (born, 1872) was a British biologist and early science writer who proposed cooperation in evolution and symbiogenesis.

Reinheimer was a critic of Darwinian view of struggle for existence. He was the author of Evolution by Cooperation (1913) and Symbiogenesis (1915) which were influential in developing the concept of symbiosis. According to science historian Jan Sapp "Reinheimer is virtually unknown among contemporary biologists and historians."

In 1915, Reinheimer was one of the first writers to discuss symbiogenesis. However, the term was used without reference to Konstantin Mereschkowski who had previously written on the subject, leading cell biologist Francisco Carrapiço to speculate that Reinheimer was unfamiliar with his work.

Reinheimer's views on symbiogenesis were seen as controversial during his time. In 1916, American zoologist William Lawrence Tower described his book Symbiogenesis as the "least logical, worst constructed, most inaccurate and irrational book upon evolution that has happened in a long time."

Little about his life is known, he was described as living in Surbiton, London until the 1950s.

• Nutrition and Evolution (1909)
• Evolution by Cooperation: A Study in Bio-economics (1913)
• Symbiogenesis: The Universal Law of Progressive Evolution (1915)
• Symbiosis: A Socio-physiological Study of Evolution (1920)
• Evolution Re-interpreted (1927)
• Evolution by Symbiosis (1928)
• Synthetic Biology and the Moral Universe (1931)